


Togruta Tell Tales

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Growing Up, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-06-02 11:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6564244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rex studied her, learned her tells, but this? He wasn't ready for and didn't know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Togruta Tell Tales

**Author's Note:**

> Presumes some AU where Palpatine gets axed, no Order 66, Ahsoka gets to grow up inside the Order.

Captain Rex was a man that was good at observing others. From the minute he got saddled with the Jedi youngling, because he just knew his General was going to misplace her at some point, he started observing her. Getting to know how she reacted would be half the battle in predicting her, as Jedi had a dangerous habit of going off the plan.

It did not take long to recognize that she had several physical tells. There were differences in her smiles, for instance. Covered teeth meant uncertain, broad ones were pleasure, unless the way her lips shifted made her teeth look exceptionally sharp. After the first time she'd tried that intimidation tactic on a shiny, and watched the recruit pale, he'd looked up her species and learned they were primarily carnivores who moved in clan structures.

It made him like her a little more than he had intended to.

It was after reading up on her people that he realized that her lekku were even more of a tattler than her smile or eyes. The blue striping on the white background had many levels of vibrancy, and they indicated a range of emotions. Once he knew that, he just started putting together a mental chart for how to judge the girl's mood based on shade and vibrancy. Between that, the smile differences, and how wide open she had her eyes in any given expression, Rex was pretty certain he would be able to accurately guess her mood on any given day.

He didn't count on puberty finally handing her a more mature figure, or the natural sensuality that came with being a mean, lean fighting machine. He hadn't expected to find himself facing a young woman where the girl had been. He hadn't expected his Mandalorian culture to go so deep that he could not get past the fact she was everything perfect in a warrior woman.

And he'd never, ever seen the lekku look that… warm and intensely blue. Or her eyes at that particular half-masted look. Nor the sharp teeth catching at a lower lip in what could only be called a distracting manner.

This? He hadn't catalogued, and the minute her eyes met his, Rex did the only thing he knew how to do in the face of not having enough intel.

Captain Rex of the 501st beat a hasty retreat, taking the time to review exactly how all those signs added up to an uncomfortable tension in his lower armor. Maybe when the General came back from escorting his wife to Naboo for the birth of their children, he'd brave asking Skywalker about the Jedi's former Padawan.

He would just avoid her in the meantime, because something in the way she'd looked at him was definitely setting off his alarms.


End file.
